Investment advisers see some bright spots

Nearly 60% of independent advisers think a double-dip recession is unlikely over the next six months, and more than 60% expect the S&P to increase in the same period, according to a survey released recently by Charles Schwab.

But don’t go betting the farm on these optimistic findings just yet.  A look at the results from January’s survey of advisers shows that they aren’t necessarily the best augurs. In that earlier survey, 49% of advisers expected inflation to increase in the ..read more

Tell the billionaires where to give

As you’ve probably heard, billions of dollars will be flowing into charitable organizations worldwide in the coming years, thanks to the Giving Pledge, a project spearheaded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Thus far, about 40 U.S. billionaires have agreed to give away at least 50% of their wealth, according to the Giving Pledge. And while the Giving Pledge hasn’t released a tally, Forbes.com estimates that America’s wealthiest will give away an additional $120 billion or more in the years to ..read more

Tell the Billionaires Where to Give

As you’ve probably heard, billions of dollars will be flowing into charitable organizations worldwide in the coming years, thanks to the Giving Pledge, a project spearheaded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Thus far, about 40 U.S. billionaires have agreed to give away at least 50% of their wealth, according to the Giving Pledge. And while the Giving Pledge hasn’t released a tally, Forbes.com estimates that America’s wealthiest will give away an additional $120 billion or more in the years to ..read more

Scam alert! Investment cons to watch out for now

You’d never fall for an email hawking shares in a diamond mine in Nigeria, but what if your own trusted broker tried to sell you a stake in a vodka enterprise in Moscow?

You might not be so suspicious. These so-called “off the book deals” — offered by an adviser you consider reliable — are among this year’s top investor traps, according to the National American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).

(And FYI, a broker in Missouri was indeed selling shares in a Russian ..read more

Is Your Bank Targeting You with Overdraft Notices?

Wondering why you’ve been bombarded with literature urging you to opt in for overdraft protection at your bank?

You may be the subject of a highly focused campaign meant to target consumers most likely to spend in excess of their balance.

Starting August 15, new Federal Reserve rules will require that banks can no longer automatically cover overdrafts and then levy a fee ($27 on average, per Moebs Services Inc.) as they had been; they’ll now need to get customers to opt ..read more

Women more optimistic than men about finances

Women appear to be more optimistic about the economy and their financial future than men are, according to a recent survey. But it helps to be young.

Asked whether business conditions where they live will improve over the next year, 56% of women polled by Citigroup said yes, compared to just 50% of men. (The telephone survey, conducted in June, is accurate within 2.2 percentage points, according to Citi.) The outlook was similar when it came to personal finance: 66% of ..read more

Nevada job market plummets from first to worst

What happens when your home state goes from having the best job market in the nation…to the worst?

Just five years ago, Nevada was the state with the best economic conditions for workers, according to a study released last week.  Now it’s dead last. Unsurprisingly, other states that boomed in the real-estate bubble — Florida, California and Arizona — joined the Silver State at the bottom of the state-by-state mid-year employment rankings published by the business news site Portfolio.com and American City ..read more

IRAs inspire uneven loyalty

Only a fraction of Americans contribute to an IRA, but the ones that do tend to take it to the max.

That’s one of the findings from a recent study of 10 million individual retirement accounts conducted by the Investment Company Institute, a mutual fund industry trade organization. The study — which also indicates that women are more likely to contribute to an IRA than men are, that the wealthy are more likely to contribute than the poor, and that ..read more

Need a sitter? Malia Obama may be available.

Reducing unemployment and cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf may top Barack Obama’s to-do list, but he hasn’t forgotten about the importance of teaching his daughters about money. In an interview last week with ABC News, the president said he and Michelle have started teaching first daughters Sasha and Malia about savings and interest. He also suggested that the girls may soon be old enough to earn their own money through babysitting gigs.

Obama’s intentions are certainly in the ..read more

Should you opt in for overdraft protection?

You can officially say goodbye to that $40 cup of coffee — that is, if your bank doesn’t badger you into paying for it all over again.

Thanks to new Federal Reserve rules, you now can decide what happens when you pull out a debit card to pay for a purchase but don’t have enough money in your checking account to cover it.

Previously, if you didn’t have enough in your account to make a purchase, your bank would generally cover it ..read more

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